To combine the unity of a central plan with the direction a church needs, plan the space as an oval, set across the axis to widen the view of the altar, or along it to lead the eye towards it.
The formal room: the furniture against the walls
In the formal room, stand the furniture against the walls and leave the middle of the room clear: a pier table (with its glass above) between each pair of windows, the sofa facing the fire, a chair either side of the chimneypiece, the chairs ranged round the walls in a line with the dado, to be brought out when wanted and put back after; and keep each wall symmetrical about its middle, its chimneypiece or its windows.
Pictures of rooms and inventories from the seventeenth century to about 1800 agree: the chairs stood round the walls, often against the dado rail they were made to match, the tables against the piers and the walls. When company came, the chairs were brought forward into a circle, a card table opened, a tea table set by the fire; when the company left, the servants put everything back.
The room was designed for this: the chairs and pier tables were part of the architecture of the walls, and the symmetry of the chimney wall and the window wall was kept by the furniture. A room arranged this way looks bare to modern eyes, its middle empty but for the carpet.
Related rules
Let the wall of a façade curve in plan (concave, convex, concave) so that the front answers the street, the light and the space within, and the order bends with it.
Make the stair of a palace a processional space: one broad flight rising to a landing, then turning back in two flights either side to arrive at the principal floor beneath a single great vault.
Design the furniture of a principal room with the room: the chairs, settees and stools covered in the stuff of the walls or the bed, the tables and glasses drawn to the architecture of the piers and the chimneypiece, so that the room and its furniture are of one manner and one date.
At the end of the apartment of state, in the bedchamber of state, set the state bed: the richest piece in the house, its tester high under the ceiling, its curtains, valances and headcloth of the richest stuff, with the chairs and stools of the room covered to match; it is a bed of honour more than of sleep.
In the room of the Regency and after, bring the furniture out into the room in groups for the occupations of the company: a sofa by the fire with a sofa table before it, a round table in the middle with chairs round it, the pianoforte, a work table, a couch; leave the walls for the pier tables, the cabinets and the bookcases.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The formal room: the furniture against the walls”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/formal-arrangement. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.